Elizabeth lay on the exam table, her ever-expanding stomach arching into her view. The doctor traced the surface of the stretched skin with her wand, looking at the wall where she was projecting the image. "It looks like this baby is going to be born with a full head of hair," the doctor pointed to the swaying strands.

"Can you see if it is a boy or a girl?" Fred leaned closer to the projection. Even after 4 kids, he had no idea what he was looking at.

"I can," the doctor looked at the couple. "It looks like Orion is finally going to have someone on his side."

Elizabeth laughed. "He'll be excited to hear that. Just yesterday he told me there were too many girls in the world."

Fred bent and kissed his wife's stomach. "What do you want to be called, baby?"

"Might be your last chance for an Arthur," Elizabeth said, sitting up and rearranging her clothes. "Or Septimus, although honestly, Fred, that might be too much for a kid."

Fred laughed and helped her off the table. Elizabeth shook the doctor's hand, and as she did, felt a folded slip of paper pass from the other woman's hand into her own. "As much as I loved my grandfather," Fred was talking as he shook the doctor's hand as well, clearly nothing out of the ordinary happened with his handhake, "you are probably right about that. Arthur. Arthur… have we run out of important men in our lives to name things after?"

"It's because we made some of them into girl names," Elizabeth shrugged. "Arthur Charles?"

"Maybe. Arthur John?"

"Oh, right. Sometimes I forget that I don't have a child named after Remus." Elizabeth rubbed her stomach absently. "Did I tell you that Teddy wants to marry Victoire?"

"I've always thought their relationship was a little too close to family for comfort," Fred snorted. "I mean, I know Ted isn't technically related to us. But still."

"Remus 'forgot' to tell Teddy that he has a vault full of gold and a house waiting for him."

"You knew when you set up that fund that it made Remus uncomfortable. You should have just done it, made yourself the trustee, and circumvented him all together."

"Well, I was barely of age at the time," Elizabeth shrugged. "I didn't know I could just do what I wanted."

"Oh really?" Fred smirked. "You had just dropped out of school to go on a dangerous mission to save the world." He lead them into a back alley so they could apparate.

"Okay, well." Elizabeth continued the conversation as if they hadn't been interrupted and opened the door to WWW. "Maybe I just didn't realize that he would be such an idiot twenty years in the future."

The shop was busy, as it almost always was in the summer, with kids inspecting the racks for their favorite prank products. Ron was behind the counter with two witches, looking at a clipboard. Or at least what passed for a clipboard in the wizarding world. It was basically just a hard surface charmed to be a little bit sticky.

"The new version of the screaming candies, which, by the way, need a better name, are selling like crazy," The younger Weasley said, marking something with his quill. "Elizabeth, I think we should put out the school safety stuff earlier this year, parents of First Years are already asking about it."

"We're fine, Ron, how are you?" Elizabeth teased, looking around the shop again. "Where have you stashed my children?"

"The big ones? Georgia is working the floor, and I don't mean that casually. That girl could sell a fire extinguisher to a phoenix." Ron grinned. "We should hire her full time. And Sevannah went with Hermione to learn to be a powerful woman. Or something like that. It might be take your daughter and all other young women you can grab to work day at the Ministry." He gestured to Elizabeth's bump. "Did you figure out what that is?"

"It's a baby," Fred grinned at his brother.

Ron rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but the kind of baby that is going to get hauled off to the Ministry to learn to break glass ceilings? Or the kind of baby who has to be taught that women are terrifying?"

"The latter," Fred's grin broadened. "Evening the score, one baby at a time. Those twins right off the bat gave the girls an unfair advantage."

"There will be no more score evening," Elizabeth said firmly. "I swear to Merlin, Frederick Weasley, your team will be stopping at 3."

"Actually," Fred spun her around and kissed her. "I'm an equal opportunity team captain. I accept all Weasleys on my team."

*S*S*

Severus Snape examined the list of First Year students for the coming year. The Ministry, in a misguided attempt to right the wrongs of the past had established a rule that magic schools had to disclose their percentage of Pure-Blooded, Half-Blooded, and Muggle-born students. They had even created a spell that would helpfully color-code the list so he could tell "at a glance" if his student body was "balanced".

The problem with the rule, Severus thought to himself, as he had many times since the announcement, was that the magical community wasn't exactly in a position to recruit. The magical children born in Britain were an unchangeable group. Some years there were more Muggle-born witches and wizards than others.

The other problem, if Severus could only choose one more, was that the disclosed numbers meant something different to everyone. Muggle parents might be calmed by a large number of Muggle-born students, while Pure-Blooded parents might be horrified by the same statistic. Or maybe no one cared. Severus wished that was the case.

At any rate, the 28 Pure-Blooded families from the early 20th century were largely dying out or diluting the bloodline with people outside of their tight group. Arthur and Molly's children had thrown their blood status to the wind, effectively taking out the Weasley and Prewett lines. So unless Draco and Astoria started having more children, the pure-blooded part of Hogwarts was going to look anything but balanced.

Of course that wasn't a problem for Severus. But there was something to be said for international credibility, and there were still parts of the world that judged an institution based on its exclusivity.

There was a knock on his office door, and he waved his wand to open it, startled slightly to see his daughter standing in the doorway. "Elizabeth? How did you get here?"

"I apparated," Elizabeth came over the threshold and shut the door behind her. "I went to the doctor today."

Severus' stomach dropped. "Is everything—

"Everything's fine," Elizabeth interrupted, sitting in one of the green chairs in front of her father's desk. "Your grandson has a full head of hair and all his limbs."

Severus breathed easier. "He's a boy then?"

"Enjoy it," Elizabeth said firmly. "I swear that this is the last one."

"I've heard it before," Severus smirked. "Anyway, you didn't apparate onto the grounds and walk all the way here to tell me that. So what's going on that you wanted to leave as little magical trace as possible?"

Elizabeth dug into her pocket. "When I was leaving the office, the doctor slipped this into my hand." She pulled out a folded slip of paper and slid it across the desk to him. "The doctor that we chose 5 kids ago, partly because she is very discreet. She's located in Muggle London, in a secret-keeper hidden office. This woman gave me this note."

Severus took the paper and unfolded it.

You cannot come again. They know where to find you.

He read the message twice before raising his eyes to meet his daughter's. "Who is 'they'?"

"I'm assuming the people trying to get me to be their face of evil," Elizabeth said, pressing her lips together. "I haven't responded to their kind invitations, and now they want to do something with my baby to make me get on board."

Severus's mind spun. Every instinct he had was screaming to take his daughter and his grandchildren and barricade them safely somewhere in Australia. "Did you show this to Fred?"

"He's at his parents' as we speak getting Orion and Lily. He took Georgia with him, and I'm stopping at the Ministry on my way home to get Sevannah."

"Why is Sevannah at the Ministry?"

Elizabeth shrugged. "Some kind of girl power thing with Hermione." She drummed her fingers on the arm of the chair. "I don't want to overreact, but—

"I've been waiting your whole life for you to actually overreact about something," Severus stood and came around the desk. "Let's go get Sevannah and go to your house. I think it's time we take this movement a little more seriously."

*S*S*

A/N: I'm sorry it's short! What is not short is the first chapter of my Next Generation story, which I have posted, so make sure to check it out and review!